Applying Pressure

Tamsin Omond
Climate Campaigner

Drawing from her experience with high profile ‘Plane Stupid' and her role as a radical lobbyist and non-violent direct activist, Tamsin considers what transforms illegal action into legitimate world-changing events.

Using both historic precedent and the current environmental struggle, she suggests that at times of crisis, when governments will not act in the interest of the people, individuals must involve and empower one another to demand and live according to what is socially good. Non-violent direct action is this community's application of pressure - not to asking for a better tomorrow but creating the reality of a better today.

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Last year, at the beginning of the summer, Tamsin borrowed her friend's edition of Heat (Monbiot). July was spent with climate science and frantically preparing Climate Camp campaigners. The end of the summer was Climate Camp - six days of sustainable living, workshops and skill-shares, two arrests and two acquittals.

There are many forms of environmental action and there are many campaign targets. Since Tamsin's speedy introduction into grass-roots organisations, she has helped coordinate carnival marches, protest camps, locks/stick-on's, and banner-drops. Working with Plane Stupid she has brought protest to a variety of sites: airports, corporate offices, high-street travel agents, the roofs of the Houses of Parliament.

With the aim of involving more women in the environmental debate and to promote direct action as a legitimate and the most effective protest method. Tamsin is helping to coordinate a rally, which will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Suffragette's rush on Parliament. The event will be on Monday 13 October, in Parliament Square. Come along.